When I heard that there would be a sequel to Mortal Kombat,
I was thrilled. I had loved the original film and found it to be one of the
better adaptations of a popular video game to film in quite some time. The
movie had ended with the promise of a sequel and I couldnít wait to see Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Never have I been so disappointed in all my
life! I should have known what I was getting myself into when the movie's
tagline was revealed - destroy all expectations...yup, all expectations were
definitely destroyed!

Annihilation picks up where
the original film left off. The fighters of the realm of Earth
have just
returned with Raiden
(James Remar) from
Mortal Kombat
victorious, with every
expectation that their realm will be protected for a generation. After all,
thatís what the rules of Mortal Kombat say, right? Unfortunately, Shao Khan
(Brian Thompson) never has been much for rules. He invades the realm of Earth,
forcing it to merge with his own realm. It is up to the survivors of Mortal
Kombat and a couple of new friends to destroy Shao Khan and prevent Outworld
from merging with the Earth realm.

Sounds simple enough, right? The
film creators even try to keep to the events in the game by killing off Johnny Cage
(Chris Conrad), much to the chagrin of Sonya Blade
(Sandra Hess). After
that, the movie is a disaster. Considering that Cageís death occurs in the
first ten minutes of the film, thatís a long time to sit through a complete mess
of a movie.

The first problem you encounter is
that very few of the original filmís cast members have returned for its sequel.
Gone are Christopher Lambert
as Raiden, Bridgette Wilson as Sonya Blade and
Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage. They at least got a look alike to play Johnny, but
Sonya goes from a tall, dirty-blonde with long hair wearing monkís robes
in the
end of Mortal Kombat to a short blonde with shoulder-length hair wearing
a white athletic t-shirt
and shorts. Raiden is a shadow of his former self with
a lot of power, but none of the mystique Christopher Lambert brought to the
role. Even more disappointing are the stunted performances by Robin Shou
and
Talisa Soto
(Liu Kang
and Kitana) thanks to a poorly written dialogue courtesy
of the script writers.

Whereas the first film focused on a few important characters, it would seem that
Mortal Kombat: Annihilationís creators wanted to feature as many
characters as they possibly could: Mileena, Motaro, Cyrax, Smoke, Jax, Sheeva,
Rain, Barak, Jade, Nightshadow and Sindel. Unlike the first film, none of these
characters receive any development, some just appearing in fight scenes and just
as quickly disappearing. Sub-Zero
(Keith Cooke) returns on the side of Earthís
fighters in this film, fights Scorpion
(J.J. Perry) and disappears just as
quickly.

The chemistry that was so clearly
present between the actors in Mortal Kombat is non-existent in
Annihilation. The storyline begins well, but dies a nasty death as too many
characters are brought into the pot. Event the fight scenes are lackluster and,
often times, ridiculously unbelievable as viewers take in some of the cheesy and
impossible cable-assisted maneuvers. I took a personal exception to the mud
match between Sonya and Mileena. Really? A mud wrestling competition using
martial arts in the middle of an action film. Ugh!

The only saving grace of this film is
its incredible soundtrack featuring songs by KMFDM, Megadeth,
Pitchshifter,
Rammstein, Psykosonik, Urban Voodoo, Manbreak
and more. The DJ remixing of many
of these songs gives the soundtrack a metal meets dance meets techno flare. I
rushed out to buy the soundtrack and love listening to it to this day.

I purchased the DVD version of
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in hopes that there would be an explanation for
such a disastrous failure in too liberally cut scenes. But there was no
commentary availableÖno deleted scenesÖno explanation for the disaster that was
this sequel.

Mortal Kombat:
Annihilation wasnít worth the price of a movie ticket and thatís saying a
lot considering the fact that the price of a movie ticket in 1997 was fairly
cheap. Thereís a reason that most of the original cast didnít return to make
this film and there was more to it than just filming conflicts, like a poorly
written script, lousy fighting scenes and non-existent character development.
Fans of the games might want to punish themselves by watching this movie anyway,
but if you donít have to, enjoy the first Mortal Kombat and stay away
from Annihilation altogether.